GOP Targets Backers of Climate Bill

WASHINGTON -- Freshman Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia is a test case for whether President Barack Obama's energy agenda will help or hurt vulnerable Democrats in next year's midterm elections.

The Democrat's June 26 vote for the sweeping climate bill that aims to reduce U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases put him in the crosshairs of an aggressive Republican advertising campaign also targeting 13 other House Democrats. The GOP accuses these Democrats of exposing their constituents to higher energy costs and putting jobs at risk.

The National Republican Congressional Committee, the House GOP's campaign arm, has spent tens of thousands of dollars on TV ads blasting Mr. Perriello for supporting what it says amounts to a giant energy tax.

ENLARGE

A Republican ad attacks Rep. Tom Perriello of Virginia over his vote to support a sweeping House bill to cut carbon emissions. Environmentalists are defending the congressman with their own media campaign.
National Republican Congressional Campaign Committee

"Rather than trying to convince middle-class Virginians that he's right and they're wrong," an NRCC spokesman said, Mr. Perriello should "stop talking and actually start listening to the people he represents."

The League of Conservation Voters and other environmental groups have sponsored ads defending Mr. Perriello and others who supported the bill. Mr. Perriello "cast a critical vote for a comprehensive clean energy jobs bill that will create the industries of tomorrow," the league said in a statement.

Skirmishing on the climate bill in Mr. Perriello's conservative district, which voted Republican in the 2008 presidential election, has been particularly fierce.

"I've never seen anything like this," said Jeffrey Marks, general manager of WDBJ Television in Roanoke, Va., referring to the big ad purchases at his station so early in an election cycle.

The surge of activity illustrates how both parties hope to make the most of an issue they think could determine control of Congress in next year's election. Democrats believe their effort to put a price on carbon emissions will help the party with voters supportive of taking action against global warming and creating alternative-energy jobs.

Republicans see parallels with a 1993 energy tax proposed by former President Bill Clinton to reduce the deficit and promote conservation, which they say contributed to the Democrats' loss of congressional control in 1994.

Even some of Mr. Perriello's fellow Democrats have questioned the wisdom of committing the U.S. to mandatory emissions cuts in the absence of similar binding commitments from other nations.

"This administration is going to have a very difficult time getting a climate change bill through if China is not a committed signatory," Virginia Democratic Sen. James Webb said at a hearing last month.

Mr. Perriello, 34 years old, acknowledged that his stance on the climate bill hasn't pleased some in his district, which stretches from Charlottesville to southern rural counties rocked by losses of textile and tobacco jobs. Calls and letters to his office are split about evenly between supporters and critics, he said.

Major Virginia businesses are split as well. The state's largest utility, Richmond-based
Dominion Resources
Inc.,
has offered qualified support for the bill. Meadwestvaco Corp., a maker of packaging products and office supplies based in Glen Allen, has denounced it as "a high-stakes energy experiment" that is "too expensive for businesses to afford."

Mr. Perriello rejects such arguments. He predicts the bill will create markets for alternatives to fossil fuels being developed in his district by sending "a long-term market signal that we're going to be in a carbon-constrained environment."

"What we're doing is betting on innovation," he said. "I've been listening to people who have lost jobs or are clinging to them, and...this is the best thing I've seen" to create jobs.

Republicans say Mr. Perriello is out of step with his constituents. They point to his suggestion that Virginians adjust their thermostats if the legislation causes higher electricity prices.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the bill would have an annual economy-wide cost in 2020 of $22 billion, or about $175 a household.

To bolster Mr. Perriello's case that the climate bill will create jobs in his district, Energy Secretary Steven Chu and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack on Saturday visited Piedmont BioProducts LLC, a fledgling refinery in Gretna, Va., that aims to turn switchgrass grown on local farms into a substitute for heating oil.

Ken Moss, Piedmont's CEO said the climate bill should help his business. Virginia's mild climate makes it ideal for growing switchgrass, but many farmers have been reluctant to set aside land for a crop that doesn't have a guaranteed market.

Mr. Moss said he was unsure what to make of the broader climate measure, which seeks to cut U.S. emissions 83% from 2005 levels by 2050. "I don't think anyone completely understands how it will affect the average American," he said.

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